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Born	25 Jun 1913		Kiel
Died	12 Apr 1977	(63)	Prien am Chiemsee, Germany

Kapitänleutnant Helmut Möhlmann

Ranks 1 Apr 1933   Offiziersanwärter 23 Sep 1933   Seekadett 1 Jul 1934   Fähnrich zur See 1 Apr 1936   Oberfähnrich zur See 1 Oct 1936   Leutnant zur See 1 Jun 1938   Oberleutnant zur See 1 Apr 1941   Kapitänleutnant 1 Apr 1945   Korvettenkapitän Decorations 6 Jun 1939   Spanish Cross in Bronze without Swords 16 Nov 1939   Iron Cross 2nd Class Apr, 1940   Destroyer War Badge 1 Dec 1941   Iron Cross 1st Class 1 Dec 1941   U-boat War Badge 1939 16 Apr 1943   Knights Cross 16 Sep 1944   U-boat Front Clasp

Helmut Möhlmann after patrol

Helmut Möhlmann began his naval career in April 1933. He served on the light cruiser Nürnberg and in the first months of the war made some patrols on the torpedo boat Luchs. In April 1940 he transferred to the U-boat force. For three months he commanded the school boat U-143 before commissioning the type VIIC U-boat U-571 in May 1941.

He took her on eight patrols, mostly in the North Atlantic, but also in the Arctic (Busch & Röll, 1997). The fourth patrol was particularly successful: in one week he sank two ships, each over 10,000 tons. He left the boat in May 1943 to attend a course at the Naval Academy at Berlin.

From September 1943 to December 1944 he served on the BdU org (Commander in Chief U-boats) staff. From December 1944 until the end of the war he commanded the 14th Flotilla at Narvik, Norway. After the surrender he spent more than four months in captivity.

After the war he joined the post-war German Navy, Bundesmarine, and later retired as Fregattenkapitän.

Special thanks to Mr. Fernando Almeida for details on date of death and post-war career.

Sources

Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1999). German U-boat commanders of World War II.
Busch, R. and Röll, H-J. (1997). Der U-Bootkrieg 1939-1945 (Band 2).
Rohwer, J. (1998). Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two.

About ranks and decorations
Ranks shown in italics are our database inserts based on the rank dates of his crew comrades. The officers of each crew would normally have progressed through the lower ranks at the same rate.

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